Millennium Peace Summit

Several sources suggested that the GCP make a prediction for the
Millenium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders.
The first was by Murali Dhar, who sent an email on Tue, 20 Jun 2000.

Subject: Re: PARTICIPATION IN G C P
Dear MR. Roger Nelson
BEST WISHES IN THE NAME OF GOD.........
Please play special attention to the spirtual meet
where about 100 religious heads are meeting on one
platform coming from allover the world. Please make
efforts to record the speeches of all the heads.They
have to be available on our web site.
The International Spirtual Meet is begining on 28 th
August at Newyork under the leadership of U N
Secretary General Mr .Kofi Annan
Murali Dhar

The suggestions for inclusion of the event have not been explicit,
but we have a reasonable
precedent in the Pope's visit to the Middle East. The events share
an aspect of pilgrimage, and
both occasions are clear statements of the integrated world we need
to achieve. The formal
analysis will follow the same criteria, presenting the whole period
of time from the 28th to 31st
August, and using a one-minute blocksize. In secondary analyses,
particular events may be singled out.

The overall trend over the four days of the Summit does not show a strong
positive trend, but instead a modest tendency to smaller deviations,
culminating in a Chisquare of 5714.2 on 5760 degrees of freedom. This
corresponds to a probability of about 0.6 (estimated -- Splus is down).
The following figure shows the four days. Pairs of points on the
horizontal expectation line show the beginning and end of the daytime
periods when the
delegates actually were meeting in plenary or special sessions.

While this analysis does not show the strong trends we have seen in
other occasions of a similar nature, it is clear that the meetings were
valuable and represented an essential gathering of forces that may help
to ensure a viable future on the planet. The following descriptions
by Sharon Franquemont give a bit of the flavor.

Each of you is familiar with U shaped General Assembly Hall. Imagine saffron
robes, Tibetan monk orange and cranberry, orange robes, Sufi hats, Sihk
turbans, Muslim black robes, Catholic priests and cardinals with their red or
magenta undergarments, the black hoods of the Greek Orthodox, Korean shamans
with black peaked hats, beautiful Eagle bonnets of Native Americans, the
colorful blue and red sacred clothes of the reindeer people of Northern
Sweden, East Indian saris shimmering everywhere, white robes, purple robes of
African priests, the large high, white bonnets of the Russian orthodox
church, the gray robes of Japanese shinto prients, the painted robes of
African shamans, feather headresses from Brazil and Central America, Anglican
collars, and many other pleasures greeting your eyes wherevery you looked
in the Hall. It was extraordinary.
...
Oren Lyons called for all the Indigenous to stand together as he spoke.
The 87 year old elder with his Eagle bonnet, Joe Medicine, had been wanting
to welcome the people to Turtle Island at every venue, finally got a chance.
He sang a beautiful welcoming song. Then Oren spoke the most moving words
about the importance of our time, followed by an Eskimo, Angaangaq Lyberth,
from Greenland saying, "About 10 years ago now, one of my people came back
to our village and reported a strange phenomenon. 'There is a trickle of
water coming down the glacier. I think that the ice is melting.'" Today
that trickle is a stream of water. So I say to you, while we sit here talking,
and making commitments to peace, remember the ice is melting.....the ice is
melting. But this ice is easy to melt compared to the ice in the human
heart, so I am going to sing a song for that, a song to melt the ice of
the human heart." Standing there in clothing made from 3 different types
of seal skins and a simple leather string around his forehead, he took out
a large seal skin drum and began to play a haunting and deep call to inner
integrity. When he finished, he whispered once again, "Remember the ice
is metling." After a moment of stunned silence, those who had listened
to this remarkable presentation with 65 Indigenous people standing in
support behind them broke into thunderous clapping again. Later, when I
walked with Oren to the bus, a saffron-colored robed monk came to Oren and
said, "You (meaning all of the people) have been Moses for this gathering;
you have parted the seas and left us a path to a more beautiful future."
The Indigenous people's message became like water for a humanity dying of
thirst. Their panel today was standing room only with crowds being turned
down at the door for over an hour. The Amazon from Brazil told of his
training, did the healing song and dance for inner pain, and set out a sound
from his mouth like one can only imagine being a bird or other creature in
the jungle. The Ecuadorian shaman sang the song of a river and his mouth,
too, recreated the sound of every river I have ever stood beside including
the fish as they are jumping, the various birds, the wind, the many different
water currents, and then he sang the song for healthy water....The Mayan
elder presented a talk that one person told me was worth the whole four days
alone....Etc. Etc. Etc. Jane Goodall sat in the back the entire time (we went
over an hour because each Indigenous delegation had a message to give) and
had it filmed.
It was/is extraordinary.....